Cushman Acquires Partner Firm in Turkey

Real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield Inc. has acquired P&D Real Estate Consultants, a Turkish company that was already a Cushman Alliance Partner. Based in Istanbul, P&D became Cushman’s partner on 1991. Under the acquisition, P&D managing director Rahsan Cebe will become a partner of Cushman & Wakefield and managing director of Cushman’s Turkish office. The decision to acquire P&D was part of Cushman’s continuing effort to expand throughout Europe. “Turkey is on of Europe’s most dynamic markets,” said Cushman CEO EMEA Paul Bacon in a release today. “The country is attracting interest from a wide cross-section of clients; yields and returns are higher that those in the more developed markets of Europe, and economic growth prospects are strong.” From P&D’s side, becoming part of Cushman, “puts us in a prime position to offer our national and international clients access to the full range of services offered by Cushman & Wakefield, not just in Turkey but also globally.” Cushman and P&D have been involved in several large scale deals in Turkey as of late. Recent transactions included the 267 million-euro sale of a site in Merter, Istanbul on behalf of a joint venture between Carrefour and Sabanci, as well as the 130 million-euro sale of four retail parks throughout Turkey. Overall, 2.7 billion euros was invested in Turkish commercial property last year, up $163 percent from 2006. Seventy percent of the total investment was in the retail sector, but other sectors are booming as well; some 274 four and five-star hotels are currently in the development pipeline in the nation, and 1 million square meters of new shopping center space is set to open this year. Office and industrial rents, meanwhile, grew at the fastest pace of nearly any nation last year, with office rents up 95 percent in local currency terms in Istanbul’s Levent submarket and industrial rents up 60 percent in Istanbul.